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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 204CT: 204CT: Clause 100, page 64, line 16, leave out ““or 90”” The noble Lord said: Clause 101 is headed ““Agreements about incidental matters””, which sounds fairly incidental. It says that any public bodies involved in a parish review or reorganisation may make agreements; those agreements are set out in Clause 101. They can be about property, income, rights, liabilities, expenses, financial relations, transfer or retention of property rights and liabilities, the making of payments in connection with that and so on. Do the terms and conditions under which this can take place have to be on a commercial basis, on the basis of valuations agreed by the district auditor, or can it be on the basis of free transfer or anything in between? If new parishes are being set up, as part of the local agreement for what those parishes are going to do it might be sensible to transfer some functions to them. Some statutory functions—I think that allotments are the classic example—have to be transferred and will automatically become a parish responsibility but there are other examples, such as running a local recreation ground or even a local park. In a small market town, there may even be a small town hall surplus to the district council’s requirements which it might be sensible to transfer to the new parish or town council. My question is whether they can make their own financial arrangements, or will the auditor complain if property is handed over free? If that cannot happen, it will fly in the face of what the Government have been talking about in regard to local groups and neighbourhood groups.